FateRosario
by OnTheImportanceOfLungs
Summary: Post-Fate Route. Saber is gone and Rin is off to see the world, and Shirou just wants to finish school and go to college. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong place to live out his new ambitions.


Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/StayNight or any of Nasu's franchise. Otherwise it wouldn't be Nasu's franchise, would it? I don't own Rosario + Vampire. How I wish I did.

Author's Note: Just a little something. Well, just a little Halloween special, to be honest.

Crossover pledge: Everything will be explained. My crossovers will be easier to understand in terms of worldbuild than my normal works. I will assume that you're a fan of either F/SN or R+V and not both - thus I'll explain both worlds.

Route taken: Fate route, with certain adjustments made. Author's license and all.

Author's Note: Written in ~5 hours or so.

**Scene**

He didn't appreciate the man leering at him through the strangely shaped mirror, but he didn't mind all that much.

He'd been the target of many dirty looks over the years and while the glowing eyes did seem quite sinister, he didn't find bus drivers especially threatening.

He stared back into the mirror passively.

His eyes grew hard. Though he had tried to maintain a peaceful silence, his will manifested with point and blade, showing the truth of his personality.

The bus driver looked away.

They drove in silence. His internal clock decided that they'd been in the tunnel for fifteen minutes already. The cheap, monotonous plastic reflectors were the only sources of light in the gloom.

"So..."

His head snapped up.

"What's your name, sonny?"

There was a current of interest in the casual speech.

"Shirou."

The eyes appeared in the mirror again.

"You are the student enrolling in Youkai Academy."

There was a stumble in the bus driver's words, as if he were unused to statements.

Shirou nodded, finding himself unable to string words together. He didn't talk often anyway.

The man suddenly turned around and looked straight at him. Shirou immediately looked out the window, refusing to be confrontational.

The faux-leather seats creaked noisily and Shirou slowly looked forward again, hoping that his driver was, at least, paying attention to the road once in a while.

"Have you said your goodbyes?"

"Yeah." _Nobody to say goodbye to_, Shirou thought.

Abruptly, the bus shot out of the tunnel.

"Last chance to turn back," the driver tried again.

Shirou frowned and stood. The bus jolted, but he didn't even come close to losing his balance. He stepped off silently, a word of thanks on his lip. The door slammed shut before he could finish. Shirou stepped back abruptly as a cloud of exhaust left the bus.

"A private academy, a chance to start anew." He looked over the deep gorge that looked rather convenient for the suicidal.

"Away from magic and grails." He closed his eyes, breathing deeply and an errant finger traced the tip of the scar that peeked over his collar, ending in a curious cross at the base of his neck.

It was rather quiet, broken only by the distant sound of pedalling.

He took another deep breath. "No one to save here. No one to worry about, except for my studies, me."

The pedaling grew slightly louder.

He stepped closer to the edge, looking down at the deep black forest. There was a certain sort of monotony to the experience that made him feel at peace.

"I'm a man without motivation," he told the wind. "A man with no intrinsic worth."

There was a loud skidding sound and a loud yell. "Don't jump!"

Shirou looked around, wondering if someone was really going to kill themselves before he was tackled by a surprisingly strong ball of pink hair. He didn't even fight it.

He opened his eyes.

He gasped.

He was staring in her eyes again, the endless, velvety pools of green, so powerful, so _Kingly_, and then the illusion was shattered.

A strand of hair the color of roses floated in front of his face.

A shocked disappointment coursed through him so strongly he had to bite his lips to prevent himself from screaming.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," the girl said in a rush. "I shouldn't have done that, but you looked like you were about to jump, and I couldn't let you and-"

"It's okay," Shirou said. The girl was nothing like-

"Oh, you're bleeding!" she suddenly whispered, her voice going still.

Shirou looked up at her, trying to discover the meaning her sudden quietness. As if she were in a trance, her coral pink lips opened slowly and her tongue slipped out.

He was far too apathetic to feel any sort of eroticism from the action, though he did notice that the girl was intensely beautiful upon a second glance.

Quicker than he could protest, much less push her off, she bent down and ran her tongue over his lips. A choked gasp escaped him as she suddenly bit down almost violently.

"Uh..." he moaned, partially due to the pain. His hands found her backside before he suddenly realized that it was a complete stranger. He pushed her off of him with no small amount of effort.

His lower lip was bleeding rather profusely now, but he didn't mind much. It could have been worse. She could have killed him.

And then it hit him.

"Ah," he whispered as he collapsed onto the ground.

"D-dead Apostle," he whispered. "You're... you're a vampire."

At least four of his circuits, his precious circuits created with time, patience and more pain than anything he had felt _ever_, had ruptured.

"Your blood," she said softly, looking shocked. "It-it's-"

Shirou looked up at her. She stepped forward, but Shirou pushed himself up off the ground.

"I am the bone of my sword," he forced through his teeth gritted in a burning pain. Little jets of crimson liquid sprayed everywhere.

His hand grasped a weapon he was _very_ familiar with. He had used it, what seemed like years ago, to kill a Hero...

His memories slipped slightly. Had the exploding circuits damaged his mind?

"N-no matter," his now-hoarse voice proclaimed. "I'll never forget her, or anything of hers."

A blue and gold blade appeared in his hand, one that resonated with his core. A single blade that described his reality, his view of the world.

It sank into the dirty mire, hitting bedrock and embedding itself into the ground halfway as he pushed himself to his feet and drew the sword... the Sword of Promised Victory.

"Away," he said lightly, even as what remained of his prana, the legacy of his magecraft, coursed through him. "Get... away from me," he repeated again, even as she drew closer.

The tip of the blade grazed the girl, no... the vampire. He didn't know how old she was, he didn't know anything about her. The word _girl_ carried a meaning to him - Sakura, the child who just wanted to live a normal life, she was a girl. this... was a Dead thing.

The Sword cut into her shoulder with barely any resistance, shocking the vampire out of her stupor and a thin trail of blood appeared.

"What?" she cried out. For a moment, Shirou was struck by how absolutely _cute_ she was. Was it some sort of glamour? It seemed to be quite effective.

"Why did you attack me," he growled, pushing his emotions away. _My mind, it is of steel_.

"Your blood smelled good," she said, looking down.

"Look at me," Shirou hissed, his voice deadly.

She looked up at him, more defiantly now. "I couldn't help it," she whined.

"Why did you drain my prana? Why did you attack my _magecraft_," he warned, he _pleaded_ for an answer that didn't amount to the whim of someone who he realized _was_ probably sixteen.

"I'm telling you, I couldn't help it. I'm a vampire," she repeated.

Shirou let the Sword disappear back into the confines of his mind.

"What are _you_?" she asked.

Shirou didn't respond, choosing instead, to limp off in the direction of the old Victorian mansion that he knew was the school.

A cloud of leaves blew about him as he put one foot in front of another in a dogged sort of determination. He would get to school on time, he had to. It didn't matter that there was a Dead Apostle wearing a school uniform. She was probably there for... schooling. It _was_ a private academy. There had to be the children of the filthy rich around and there was no rich like several-thousand-years-old.

He thought briefly of a man dressed in armor of beaten gold with proud eyes.

Shirou's frown never left his face even as he carried onward.

Inevitably, she caught up to him.

"I'm sorry!" she cried out to him.

"Don't want to hear it," he mumbled.

The girl looked rather distraught for a moment and _something_ within him protested.

"You're forgiven. Don't do it again," he said quietly.

She threw herself around him immediately, sending them crashing to the ground as she buried her face in his chest.

"Give them an inch..."

She didn't hear him.

"Can you walk?" she queried, her eyes inches away from his. Shirou shook his head in disbelief.

"Yes."

He stood, easier now. He mentally gauged the damage to his circuits and grimaced. It would take days to repair them.

No. It didn't matter. He was here to learn, to make friends and to _live_. Whether he was a mediocre mage or the key to the Root itself wasn't of question now.

He smiled, quite content all of a sudden, as a healing spell that Rin had taught him slowly knitted his lip together.

He couldn't help but think that the other Magus would have healed a hole in his chest in seconds.

They walked in what Shirou believed was an awkward silence for several minutes, though it seemed that his travelling companion was under no such beliefs.

In fact, he could swear that she was drawing closer and closer to him.

"Why are you hanging off my arm?"

She didn't respond, but a smile played on her lips.

Shirou gave up.

"What's your name?"

"Shirou."

"I'm Moka."

He nodded.

They continued to walk as Shirou examined the campus grounds.

Several tombstones caught his eye.

"I didn't think Halloween was coming up so quickly," Shirou remarked, unsure of what else to say.

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

They walked in further silence.

"I really thought you were going to jump," Moka said suddenly.

Shirou didn't respond, so she continued.

"I don't want to see anyone kill themselves."

"People kill themselves all the time," Shirou said, sounding a lot more flippant than he felt.

"Not if I can save them."

"It's impossible to save everyone." Shirou spoke a little louder now. The girl's words had cut into him in a way he didn't understand.

They walked past a boy in a school uniform admiring the scenery nervously. The boy gave them a hopeful look and followed them. Shirou paid him no mind. The school grounds _could_ be considered "scary", after all. He looked up at the mansion, a frown marring his features yet again.

"We have to try, don't we?" Moka said after several minutes of contemplation.

"Do we?"

A change had come over the vampire. "We _have_ to," she said earnestly, stopping suddenly. "There's no one else who would, if we don't," she said.

Shirou gave a bitter laugh. "You won't convince me to change my views with one impassioned speech, Moka. Save it." Shirou rubbed his scar thoughtfully.

"A savior is not someone brave," Shirou decided. "A savior is someone who is too cowardly to save himself. Someone who isn't selfish enough."

Moka stared at him as if he'd said something supremely strange. Shirou noted that the person who'd been following them had also stopped within hearing distance.

Then she grinned triumphantly. "Would you save someone you loved?"

Shirou froze.

There was another pause.

"What is love, Moka?" he wondered, and continued to take long, slow strides once more, allowing Moka to walk alongside him. "Have you ever loved someone, Moka?"

Moka looked away, shrugging. "I love my sisters. I love my father... usually. I loved my mother."

Shirou closed his eyes, thinking of people he had loved.

As they neared the school, Moka thought of one last question.

"What are _you_?"

Shirou looked at her, long and hard. "I don't understand," he stated plainly.

"I mean... what can you do. How are you... different? How did you draw your sword?"

Shirou gave her a confused look. "Magecraft, of course. How else?"

She seemed to accept his answer, though she did look slightly disappointed.

"You're scared of me, right?"

"Why would I be?"

"Because I'm a vampire."

"Everyone is afraid of the unknown, Moka. It is the way we choose to deal with it."

They walked through the front doors in yet another silence.

"You're so philosophical," Moka complained. "Where do you get this stuff from?"

Shirou chuckled. "Here and there, here and there..."

They walked through the halls as they heard the sound of teachers and students talking.

"Where are you leading me?" Moka wondered.

"Wh-what?" Shirou stared. "I thought _you_ knew where we were going."

Moka dug in the barely-functional pockets of her green blazer. She blushed. "I don't have the sheet we got at orientation."

"We had orientation?" Shirou asked. "News to me."

"Do you think there's some sort of office around here?" Moka wet her lips nervously.

"There has to be. Someone has to deal with programming the students."

Moka perked up suddenly. "There's a list over there!"

Shirou looked at a bulletin. Sure enough, there were large sheets with student homerooms posted against the wall.

He walked up to it slowly.

"Room..." he squinted. The paper was badly printed, and he was near the bottom of the third sheet.

"193," he declared.

"Oh, I'm in 193 too," Moka quickly said, dragging him off. "You go off to homeroom for now. I need to talk to the Headmaster for a moment. Some family business. I just remembered," she said, her voice becoming more and more high pitched.

Shirou wondered what could have been so important, shrugged, and walked off.

He watched Moka dash through the hall.

"Weird."

He stepped into Room 1-3 and closed the door behind him, sitting near the middle. He noticed that the boy who had been following them earlier was also in their homeroom. He shook his head in slight disbelief.

He had barely readied himself when the woman who could only have been the teacher started.

"Hello everyone and welcome to Youkai Academy! I'm your homeroom teacher Shizuka Nekonome."

Shirou wondered if it were an elaborate joke. The woman had _cat ears_ on, for the love of the Root. If Moka hadn't damaged his circuits, he would have believed that she were in on it too.

"I think you all already know this, but this is a school built for the sake of monsters to attend!"

Shirou burst out laughing.

"Is something wrong... Shirou?" the teacher asked, checking her sheet with little profile pictures printed on them.

"Your cat ears..." Shirou whispered.

"Oh..." the teacher said, blushing.

"Right," she continued. "Okay. The lesson." She took a deep breath.

"The Earth has already come under the control of humans!" she said, as she began to lay down a plan for coexistence and peace.

"This has got to be the strangest themed geopolitics lesson I've had," Shirou scribbled into his notebook. He briefly recalled the time Himura-sensei had come into school decked out in full Saudi royal regalia in his old school.

"... So for that reason, as a school rule, you will all live your lives at this academy in human form!" she finished.

Shirou looked up from his distracted notes, utterly bemused that the lesson had ended there. He had expected an explanation of the allegory - he was already crafting his answers to the possible questions that his teacher could have asked, such as "how can you relate Japan to monsters who own only small pieces of the world?" or "how has American culture changed our nation fundamentally?"

She babbled a little afterwards, but Shirou didn't pay much attention - he was too busy copying the final paragraph on the board.

"Hey teach, wouldn't it be better if we just... ate up the humans?" asked someone sitting in the front row.

"Wow, everyone's really into the lesson," Shirou jotted down.

"And in the case of beautiful girls, better to molest them."

Shirou reluctantly raised his hand.

The teacher pointed at him.

"Yeah, we can take their resources with our superior abilities, can't we?" Shirou wondered aloud, thinking of the Japanese economy.

"If we attack quickly, we can take them all out and then the world will be ours again!" a chubby boy in the back row shouted over the din of students who began to talk louder and louder.

"All hail the Emperor?" Shirou noted in the margin.

"Sorry I'm late!" came a voice from the doorway.

"Oh that's fine, just take a seat," Nekonome-sensei said in relief.

"Ok!" the girl shouted happily, walking into the room.

All conversation stopped as everyone turned to stare at the newcomer.

Shirou noticed the boy who had spoken up in the front row had stopped slouching. The kid who'd been following him stared with undisguised admiration.

"Who is she?" someone whispered, triggering a cascade of conversation.

"Such flowing hair, such big eyes," someone mumbled dreamily.

Shirou turned a gimlet eye at the offender.

"Whoa, beautiful! Even if it's just her human form, no one can transform into something _that _amazing!"

Shirou rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe them.

"Hot! She's too hot!" someone said, looking ready to pass out.

"I'm so glad I'm in the same class as her!" another boy gushed.

Shirou shrugged helplessly.

"Shirou!" she cried out suddenly, looking straight at him. "I can't believe we're in the same class!"

Shirou frowned. Before he could clamp his jaw shut, a quick, "Are you serious?" escaped him.

She slid into the chair next to him after awkwardly looping her arms around his seated form.

"Who is that guy?" someone muttered nastily.

Shirou groaned as glares turned on him.

"What relation does he have with that girl?" they wondered.

"Why do I feel like I'm trapped in a bad anime?" Shirou shot back.

The bell rang, and like the proper Pavlovian dogs the students were, they stood up immediately and filed out efficiently. At the forerfront of the crowd, Moka was dragging Shirou by the arm.

"We have the same classes!" she shouted into his ear.

"But I haven't even shown you my schedule," Shirou said over the din of the passing students.

Moka waved her arm dismissively. Shirou pushed away his sudden discomfort in favor of walking with a bit more speed.

Everyone was staring at Moka.

"I don't believe this," Shirou groaned.

"Yeah," Moka sighed.

"Hmm, such a pretty one!" someone said, directly ahead of them.

Shirou stared. It was the boy in the front row of their homeroom. Hadn't he just been practically running through the school?

He stared at the room number of the nearest classroom.

1-3.

"Oh, is this building circular?" he groaned again.

"I'm your classmate Komiya Saizou! Salutations." There was an oily smile on the other boy's face. Shirou looked at him closely.

His hair was down in a casual mane and he had piercings on his lips and chin and cheap earrings. Shirou shrugged. The boy was probably trouble.

"By the way, why is a beautiful girl like yourself associating with a boy like this?" His arm shot out. Shirou ducked, and decided that the other was probably representative of the general intelligence level of the children in the school.

They were, indeed, children. He wondered if it were a flawed view to have - to believe that everyone was beneath him in mental maturity. Surely there were people who had faced hardships similar to his. Arrogance... he thought briefly of a man in gold... was unbecoming.

"Well, why don't we go out for a bit?"

Moka backed away from Saizou slowly. "Ehh, I'm having a lot of fun with Shirou!" she squeaked, dragging him away.

She dragged him into an abandoned stairway.

"Okay, stop," Shirou said. "Why are you doing this?"

Moka looked vaguely guilty for a moment. "You're my... friend..." she said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"You're really something," Shirou said quietly.

Moka blushed. "It's just that... I've sucked your blood," she said, as if that explained everything.

"I... don't follow."

"Your blood... it tastes nice," she finally admitted. "Like it's human blood. But... spicy and potent and-"

"You realize that you had sucked the prana out of me, don't you?"

"Prana?"

"Magic, whatever."

"Oh."

She looked at him hopefully.

"Can I?"

"Again?" Shirou stared. "Also, no. It hurts."

"It can't be that bad, can it?"

"Listen, okay. I don't even know why I'm talking to you. I don't know why I'm not thirty feet away from you at all times. You attack me randomly with some bullshit about how you saved me from suicide-"

She glared at him angrily, but it didn't deter him.

"And I'm just supposed to accept you as my best friend forever and... blood buddy of some sort? You're... a Dead Apostle, for god's sakes. Aren't all of you supposed to go berserk and kill all your friends every ten years or so?"

Moka stared at him for a moment and then burst into tears.

"I-I thought we were friends," she cried, clutching herself. "It's me, it's always me. I'm always the p-problem," she shouted loudly. "No one ever wants to be my friend. Because I'm different. Because I'm a vampire-"

Shirou wasn't moved by her outburst. "You can't just take someone's blood without their consent. It can be used in very powerful magecraft, and I've only got so much of it," he shouted.

She began wailing in response.

"Damn it all," Shirou slammed his fist into the wall. He sat suddenly, burying his face in his hands and resting his elbows on his thighs. He pushed his breath through his teeth forcefully.

"This isn't a fairy tale, Moka. I'm not Prince Charming."

"You aren't," she snapped.

Despite it all, it still hurt a little.

**Scene**

Emotional Cliffhanger? Sure. I'm too tired to write more today. It's 12:17 am and I have school. This isn't beta'd but I read all of it out loud, so there shouldn't be grammar issues that break the flow, at least.


End file.
